Oregon State University experiments

Experiment Video Feeds

Experiments Summary

Phase

Experiments

Data Review

6

Complete

10

Experiment List

EAGER Tsunami Wave Phase 2

Status: Data Review/Interpretation
Planned for 2010-10-11 08:00 PST

Phase 1 of this project took place in Jan 2010 in the Tsunami Wave Basin. This phase is the followup testing that took place in the Large Wave Flume. The project will continue its investigation testing the hypothesis that the leading tsunami wave d...
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Phase 1 of this project took place in Jan 2010 in the Tsunami Wave Basin. This phase is the followup testing that took place in the Large Wave Flume. The project will continue its investigation testing the hypothesis that the leading tsunami wave does not have sufficient time and distance to evolve into a solitary form, therefore challenging the currently used modeling approach for wave runup and other physical quantities based on the solitary wave. [less]

Landslide Tsunami Bathymetry Phase 1

Status: Data Review/Interpretation
Planned for 2010-07-12 16:52 PST

This project's long-term goal is to transform assessment and mitigation of the landslide tsunami hazard through hybrid modeling of landslide tsunami evolution in real world scenarios, where the generation, propagation, and runup stages overlap. Rare...
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This project's long-term goal is to transform assessment and mitigation of the landslide tsunami hazard through hybrid modeling of landslide tsunami evolution in real world scenarios, where the generation, propagation, and runup stages overlap. Rare field measurements are mostly limited to landslide scarp, deposit, tsunami runup, and eyewitness accounts, while critically important data related to the landslide motion and tsunami evolution is lacking. The goal of the research is to compensate for missing data by combined physical and numerical modeling of fully three-dimensional landslide tsunami scenarios. [less]

This proposed NEESR Payload project investigates long-wave hydrodynamics when flow is impeded by discontinuous macro-roughness, representing forested areas. The overall project goal is to fundamentally understand how tsunami waves respond to discontinuous macro-roughness in nearshore and onshore areas for quantifying energy dissipation and studying the runup as a function of land cover variability (i.e., forested areas). Experiments will be conducted in the NEES TWB. Three macro-roughness configurations will be evaluated, where circular roughness patches will be placed on staggered grids of varying spacing; roughness will be represented by emergent cylinder arrays similar to forested areas. High-resolution spatiotemporal measurements of free-surface displacement, velocity, runup, and
two-dimensional (planar) circulation will be collected to elucidate the two-dimensional water elevation and runup response to differing macro-roughness patch sizes and spatial (horizontal) layouts. [less]

Housesmash Phase 2

Status: Data Review/Interpretation
Planned for 2010-05-03 16:43 PST

Phase I of this project took place in the Large Wave Flume in FY2009. Phase II will take place in FY2010 in the Tsunami Wave Basin. Their work will focus on tsunami structure tests at smaller scales by utilizing the three-dimensional ability of the T...
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Phase I of this project took place in the Large Wave Flume in FY2009. Phase II will take place in FY2010 in the Tsunami Wave Basin. Their work will focus on tsunami structure tests at smaller scales by utilizing the three-dimensional ability of the Tsunami Wave Basin to study the effect of macroroughness elements on tsunami wave runup. [less]

Tsunami and Swell Payload

Status: Data Review/Interpretation
Planned for 2010-03-08 23:34 PST

This payload project will investigate how tsunami waves are amplified by interaction with ocean swell and wind waves. Understanding how different ocean conditions can change the destructive power of tsunami waves is crucial in planning evacuation str...
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This payload project will investigate how tsunami waves are amplified by interaction with ocean swell and wind waves. Understanding how different ocean conditions can change the destructive power of tsunami waves is crucial in planning evacuation strategies. The Tsunami Wave Basin wavemaker will be directed to produce these novel conditions and the wave climate and water velocities at various locations will be measured. [less]

EAGER Tsunami Wave

Status: Data Review/Interpretation
Planned for 2010-01-19 23:29 PST

During the last forty years, solitary waves have been used as surrogate leading tsunami waves in laboratory studies. The data taken from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis, however, show that the length and time scales for the solitary wave are too small...
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During the last forty years, solitary waves have been used as surrogate leading tsunami waves in laboratory studies. The data taken from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis, however, show that the length and time scales for the solitary wave are too small in comparison with those of real tsunamis. This discovery poses a fundamental challenge for the tsunami research community, who currently interpret the existing results based on solitary wave theory. More importantly, this points to the need to investigate the feasibility of generating adequate long waves in a laboratory facility for laboratory research. [less]

Tsunamos Phase 3

Status: Completed
Planned for 2009-07-06 13:00 PST

Based on the results of data analyzed from phase 2, researchers will construct a bathymetry with a significant cross-shore feature, such as a channel, which will generate strong 3D changes in the flow patterns during runup and rundown. This feature w...
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Based on the results of data analyzed from phase 2, researchers will construct a bathymetry with a significant cross-shore feature, such as a channel, which will generate strong 3D changes in the flow patterns during runup and rundown. This feature will be designed to mimic a realistic shallow water bathymetry irregularities, and will provide insight into the magnitude of flow variations due to such local features. Free surface maps will be created, and turbulence information will be extracted from numerous velocity measurements. In addition, overhead video and dye studies will be used to visualize flow patterns. [less]

HiReef Phase 3

Status: Completed
Planned for 2009-07-06 12:56 PST

Based on the results of extensive test runs in the Tsunami Wave Basin from June to December 2007, selected experiments will be repeated at 2.5 times the scale in the Large Wave Flume. This will allow for evaluation of scaling techniques so that both...
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Based on the results of extensive test runs in the Tsunami Wave Basin from June to December 2007, selected experiments will be repeated at 2.5 times the scale in the Large Wave Flume. This will allow for evaluation of scaling techniques so that both TWB and LWF test results can be extrapolated to full scale conditions. Tsunami bore formation and energy dissipation studies will focus on the effect of various bed profiles applied to the beach slope and flat reef regions. Structural loading tests will focus on uplift on floor systems and lateral loads on column and wall elements when struck by a tsunami bore. [less]

HouseSmash Phase 1

Status: Completed
Planned for 2009-04-15 12:49 PST

The goal of this project is to model building damage by studying water flow and debris hazard of collapsed buildings in the flooded areas. This will help us understand the expected damage to cities and town and to design buildings to withstand these...
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The goal of this project is to model building damage by studying water flow and debris hazard of collapsed buildings in the flooded areas. This will help us understand the expected damage to cities and town and to design buildings to withstand these forces.
As a first step of this new approach, we will focus on residential (light-frame wood) buildings which make up 90% of the building stock in the US and are where people spend approximately half of the hours in their day, Because of the sheer number of residential buildings in these coastal communities, understanding tsunami impact on these structures and the expected damage level is necessary to reduce damage and loss of life. [less]

Tsunamos Phase 2

Status: Completed
Planned for 2008-07-18 08:13 PST

Phase II of TSUNAMOS will make use of a longshore-variable sloping beach. This beach can be described as a triangular reef, where the largest shallow water extent (shelf) exists along the centerline of the tank, and linearly tapers to zero at the ba...
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Phase II of TSUNAMOS will make use of a longshore-variable sloping beach. This beach can be described as a triangular reef, where the largest shallow water extent (shelf) exists along the centerline of the tank, and linearly tapers to zero at the basin side wall. The purpose of this beach is to create a 3D, bathymetry-forced breaking pattern. A single solitary wave and depth condition will be investigated. Numerous ADVa??s will be used, with the goal of extracting turbulence (stress) information; many realizations with ADVa??s in the same location are needed. The free surface elevation will be mapped with approximately 170 resistance wave gage locations. Runup will be recorded with video cameras. Additionally, dye studies will provide information on the mixing and transport by the solitary wave. Roughness studies will include both fixed and movable sand and gravel, stripes and wires (simulating bushes and trees), and small blocks (simulating small structures in the path of tsunami inundation). 2HD runup time series will be digitized from overhead cameras, and the inundation limit will be manually traced after each experimental trial. These experimental settings will simulate situations closer to what tsunamis encounter on natural beaches. With this data, accurate bottom dissipation models will be developed for transient tsunami flow, improving significantly upon the traditional approach.
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HouseImpact Payload

Status: Completed
Planned for 2007-11-14 12:34 PST

The objective of this payload project is to install residential structural models, at a larger-scale than the mid to high-rise structures tested by the SG researchers on the other side of the wave basin, to investigate impact due to wave loading and...
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The objective of this payload project is to install residential structural models, at a larger-scale than the mid to high-rise structures tested by the SG researchers on the other side of the wave basin, to investigate impact due to wave loading and run-up (applications to tsunami engineering) and pressure/wind driven surge (applications to hurricane engineering and science). [less]

HiReef Phase 1 & Phase 2

Status: Completed
Planned for 2007-06-11 16:15 PST

The proposed research will develop the methodology and validated simulation tools for implementation of site specific Performance Based Tsunami Engineering (PBTE) for use in the analysis, evaluation, design and retrofit of coastal structures and faci...
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The proposed research will develop the methodology and validated simulation tools for implementation of site specific Performance Based Tsunami Engineering (PBTE) for use in the analysis, evaluation, design and retrofit of coastal structures and facilities, and code-compatible provisions for tsunami resistant structural design. Coastal inundation modeling will be developed to redraft the inundation mapping for the Hawaiian Islands. The analytical simulation tools will be validated through extensive experimentation at the Tsunami Research facility at OSU. The Tsunami Wave Basin will be used to develop and validate coastal inundation codes including the influence of coastal plan and bathymetric variations, and 3-D RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes) simulations of fluid-structure interaction. The Longitudinal Wave Basin will be used to validate the scour modeling and to study the effect of floating debris on structural elements. [less]

Tsunami Wave Impact Forces on Cylinders (TIC)

The impact for of tsunami (or solitary wave) as well as Conoidal waves on an arryy of cylinders will be examined under this experiment. The purpose of the experiment is to provide accurate wave runup, pressure and total base shear and overturning mom...
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The impact for of tsunami (or solitary wave) as well as Conoidal waves on an arryy of cylinders will be examined under this experiment. The purpose of the experiment is to provide accurate wave runup, pressure and total base shear and overturning moment on the cylinders. Wave gauges and acoustic Doppler velocimeters will be installed to determine the wave elevation and water particle velocities at selected locations in the wave basin. A number of pressure gauges will be flush-mounted on the surface of the cylinder to obtain pressure due to water pressure changes and wave impact loads. The cylinder and its support are carefully designed to serve as a a??load celli??? using structure mechanics principles and strain gauges instrumented at strategic support locations. A series of 1, 2 and 3-cylinder arrangements and three different water depth and wave heights will be tested. There will be approximately seven tests per day with an hour for each test run. The results will become benchmarks for testing existing an future numerical models for wave runup on structures. [less]

Tsunamos Phase 1

Status: Completed
Planned for 2007-03-05 08:55 PST

The objectives of the proposed research program are to 1) improve understanding of nearshore, three-dimensional tsunami evolution through an extensive set of physical experiments using NEES facilities; 2) create an extensible framework to provide a...
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The objectives of the proposed research program are to 1) improve understanding of nearshore, three-dimensional tsunami evolution through an extensive set of physical experiments using NEES facilities; 2) create an extensible framework to provide a systematic structure for validating computational models with experimental and field data; 3) refine modeling capabilities and couple the various components together to create a multi-scale simulation tool; and 4) develop a sustainable education and outreach program that educates the general public about tsunamis and appropriate responses to them. Nearshore evolution of tsunami waves, such as 3D breaking through focusing and bathymetry, and overland flow across irregular and rough topographies, will be investigated. Concurrent to the experimental effort, a comprehensive tsunami simulator, TSUNAMOS (Tsunami Open Source Community Model), will be developed. [less]

3D Tsunami Evolution Using a Landslide Tsunami Generator

The proposed research program aims at achieving the following scientific objectives: 1. to understand the mechanism of landslide generated tsunamis and the associated runup and rundown, 2. to understand the dynamic interactions among tsunamis, rigid...
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The proposed research program aims at achieving the following scientific objectives: 1. to understand the mechanism of landslide generated tsunamis and the associated runup and rundown, 2. to understand the dynamic interactions among tsunamis, rigid and flexible structures, and moving objects, 3. to improve the modeling capability of complex runup flows within the context of their interactions with flexible and moving objects, and 4. to develop benchmark problems with high quality experimental data for validating numerical simulation models. [less]

HiReef Pilot Study

Status: Completed
Planned for 2006-10-31 16:14 PST

Experimental scour studies will be conducted to calibrate Prof. Yin Lu Younga??s analytical and numerical sediment transport models. Preliminary experiments will be conducted in the Tsunami Research Facility Long Wave Flume using a previous experimen...
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Experimental scour studies will be conducted to calibrate Prof. Yin Lu Younga??s analytical and numerical sediment transport models. Preliminary experiments will be conducted in the Tsunami Research Facility Long Wave Flume using a previous experimental sand dune test setup. Different wave steepness ratios will be used to investigate the effect of monochromatic and pseudo solitary waves on sediment transport for a nearly bilinearly sloped beach. [less]